Émigré Cabaret in Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, Bristol and Salzburg

The recipe of a Wiener Schnitzel as a song in English, by former Kindertransport refugee Eric Sanders (1919-2021), arranged by Dominic Doutney and performed with pianist Kevin Tamanini at Melba Hall, Melbourne, August 15, 2025

Norbert's Cabaret Programme with music by composers who fled the Nazis to Britain has been heard in different parts of the world throughout 2025. It presents songs discovered through research at the Royal College of Music, for example by Kindertransport refugee Eric Sanders, who wrote uplifting and melancholic songs to his own text during and after his service in the Special Operations Executive of the British Army, as well as excerpts from the bilingual comic internment revue 'What a Life!' written by Hans Gal during the internment of Austro-German refugees as enemy aliens on the Isle of Man in 1940. The programme also includes some more 'classical' songs by fellow Émigrés Robert Kahn and Karl Rankl.

After performing the repertoire during a tour to Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne on invitation of the Austrian Embassy in Australia, Norbert has also worked with music students in Bristol University and the Mozarteum Salzburg to pass on the repertoire to the next generation.

Performance at the Austrian Embassy Canberra, August 18, 2025

The programme at the Goethe Institute in Sydney on August 20, 2025

The Bristol performance on November 8, 2025, was the result of a collaboration initiated by Prof. Florian Scheding, author of the award-winning book Musical Journeys: Performing Migration in Twentieth-century Music.

Young singers from Bristol University at the Bristol Improv Theatre on November 8, 2025

The full ensemble of the Bristol performance